Carpet-sweeper



UETTED sTaTEs TATENT oEEicE.

N. B. PRATT, OF DEEP RIVER, CONNECTICUT.

CARPET-SWEEPER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 22,97 5, dated February 15, 1859'.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, N. B. PRATT, of Deep River, in the county ofMiddlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and 5 usefulImprovement in Carpet-Sweepers; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of thisSpecification, in which- Figure l, is an end view of the carpet sweeper,the end plate being removed. Fig. 2, is a transverse section of thesame. Fig. 3, is an inverted plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference, in each of the several figures, indicatecorresponding parts.

The nature ofiny invention consists in the arrangement of the rotating1brush on adjustable swinging lever bearings in combination with anelastic driving belt, whereby the brush can be adjusted so as tocompensate for any considerable wear and is held down to its work with agreater or less spring pressure and yet is capable of rising and fallingautomatically so as to adapt itself to any undulations of the surfaceover which it moves, as hereinafter specified.

To enable others skilled in the art, to make and use my invention, Iwill proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is the case which incloses the working mechanism of the carpetsweeper.

B, is the dust pan hinged as usual to the bottom of the case, and heldin place, while sweeping is being performed, by means of a catch C, saidcatch allowing it to be readily detached and inverted when it is desiredto empty the dust.

D, D', are rollers on which the sweeper 40 travels. The periphery of therollers D, D', are covered with rubber so as to act with greaterfriction upon the floor or carpet and thus rotate the brush moreeifectually.

E, is the brush, it rotates on an axle F,

which is suspended in oblong slots a, c, of 'the partit-ions of the caseA, by means of swinging lever bearings G, G, as shown. The bearings G,G, are arranged to play up and down in stop guides c, c, and areconnected loosely by one of their ends to stationary notched plates d,el, as shown. The connection between the bearings and the plates is suchthat while no pivots or axes are provided, the bearings have no chanceto y harge their position unless shifted by hand.

H, I-I, are elastic crossed belts encircling pulleys e, e, of the brushand pulleys f, f, of the propelling and driving roller shafts g, g, asshown.

lt will he seen that the bearings of the brush stand diagonally to thebelt and consequently the bearings act with a leverage and cause thebrush to act with a downward thrust which, with the tension of theelastic belt, causes the brush to bear with considerable force upon theoor or carpet and consequently, in its revolution, to sweep the saineperfectly. The force, however, exerted upon the brush is not so great asto in* terfere with its rising and accommodating itself to anyundulations of the surface over which it moves.

By having the bearings connected with the plates d, d, by unconnected Vshaped joints facilities are afforded for adjusting the brush asoccasion may require by reason of wear, for by shifting the bearings toeither of the notches of the plates above the one it now occupies, thebrush will have a chance to descend to a greater extent, as the centralportion of the bearings will come in contact with the front edge of t-heguides instead of the rear edge and consequently will have a greatermovement allowed them before they rest. Thus adjusting the bearings willdecrease the downward thrust of the bearings, but will increase thelongitudinal thrust and thus cause the belts to be drawn to a greater orproper tension in case they have become slack. In this case the brushwill act upon the carpet or floor more by its own gravity than by thethrust of the lever and the tension of the belt, and therefore itseffect upon the carpet will be comparatively light. rllhus it will beseen the brusl1 can be adapted for light and heavy sweeping.

As a modification of my invention, the belt might be made of leather andthe bearings be made elastic themselves so as to act with a leverage andspring pressure, as described. By making the bearings with a series ofcoils intermediate between their ends or by applying flat springs totheir upper edges, they may be caused to act with a spring pressure.

In the drawing, Fig, 2, the red lines show the proper position of thehandle I, by which the sweeper is moved over the carpet, but ifnecessity require, the handle may be adjusted as shown in black.

The red. lines in Fig. 1, shoW the brush adjustable swinging leverbearings G, in in full action as when movin over a plain combinationwith an elastic driving belt H, 10

surface and the black lines t e position of substantially as and for thepurposes set the brush as when moving over raised or irforth.

5 regular portions of the carpet or floor. N. B. PRATT.

What I claim as my invention and desire Witnesses: to secure by LettersPatent, is- G. YORKE ATLEE,

The arrangement of the rotating brush on R. W. FENWICK.

